OGDEN, Utah — OGDEN, Utah - Ogden Police are investigating the disruption of a Zoom meeting held by the city's Diversity Commission Wednesday afternoon.
According to a news release from Ogden PD, several dozen people entered the meeting and directed racial epithets and hate speech at the Commissioners.
"They tried to be bullies and thugs and pick people out and said a lot of things that were trying to be highly, highly offensive," Mayor Mike Caldwell told FOX13. “It’s sad… I don’t like being here today and I don’t like what happened to the people that were on that call.”
The disruptors also displayed pornographic images, the news release said.
A screen capture from the Zoom meeting shows a juvenile doing a Nazi "Sieg Heil" salute.
That image has been shared all over the state of Utah but police say they have not been able to identify the juvenile.
“That leads me to believe, in that case, that it’s probably not a local,” Police Chief Watt told us.
Police said the meeting was quickly terminated after the disruptive activity began, and they have made the investigation a high priority.
"Those responsible will be held accountable to the full extent of what the law allows," the news release said. "The Ogden Police Department condemns the actions of these individuals. Ogden's diversity is a key asset in this City and such behavior will not be tolerated.”
For the commissioners who were on the call, this was a disturbing event.
“It hits you in a place that you don’t expect. Following the meeting, I spoke with one of our black commissioners,” said Taylor Knuth, one of the city's diversity commissioners. "He expressed that this isn’t out of the ordinary. In fact, it’s almost normal and something to be expected as a person of color in America.”
